There’s the usual human resource (HR) mess-up and then there’s this.

An investigation code-named “Part Time” that was conducted by the police revealed that an employee at the Pugliese Ciaccio hospital in the Calabrian city of Catanzaro has been missing work for 15 whole years.

And the best part?

Apparently, no one realized it, least of all the HR department, since he still got paid his monthly salary right up until he got caught, with the total amounting to around £464,000 (S$860,000).

He last showed up for work in 2005.

The man, now 67 years old, had purportedly threatened the then hospital director in 2005 from filing a disciplinary report regarding his absenteeism.

It seems like the employee “won”, that is until now.

He now faces 3 charges, namely abuse of office, forgery and aggravated extortion.

Six of the managers at the hospital are also being investigated for enabling the employee’s 15-year-streak of absenteeism.

Rampant absenteeism in the public sector went unchecked

The whole point behind the Italian police’s investigation is to rein in what was supposed to be “rampant absenteeism” in their public sector…

…absenteeism that somehow had gone under the radar of their respective HR departments, further proving that HR might not even be doing their jobs properly, if at all.

According to another investigation code-named Operation Stakhanov, 35 employees (about a third) at the Sanremo town hall were caught cheating the time management system.

Secret surveillance cameras were used to catch the wives of two of the 35 workers clocking in for their husbands while they were absent from their work.

There was also the widely-publicized case where 83.5% of Rome’s police force called in “sick” on New Year’s Eve.

That’s about 835 officers out of the approximately 1000-strong police force, people!

Did they somehow get food poisoning all at the same time? Hah, I bet not!

He’s not even the king of absenteeism

Despite what the Italian press is claiming, someone else had actually beaten him to the title of “king of absentees”.

In India, a government servant named A.K. Verma was caught skipping work for a whopping 24 years and was finally fired from his job as an executive engineer at the Central Public Works Department.

He last showed up for work in December 1990.

In his case, he originally requested an extension of leave which was not approved but he decided to just leave regardless.

He was found guilty of “wilful absence from duty” in 1992, but due to red-tape and whatnot, it took the Indian government another 22 years and a cabinet minister intervention before Verma could be officially fired from his job.

He’s definitely the ultimate “role model” for everyone who has ever played hooky before. All hail the king of absenteeism!

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